Consider the land and what grows on it. Sometimes Mother Nature needs help making native species thrive and keeping invasive species out.

One way LCRA, a conservation and reclamation district, does that is with a land conservation tool referred to as “prescribed burns.” That means, on purpose, professional land conservationists periodically light well-planned, safe fires at some of LCRA’s parks to get rid of the “bad “plants and give the “good” plants a chance to respond and flourish without unnatural impediments.

“We’re trying to slow the growth of invader species,” explains Ted Reiley, an LCRA natural resource conservation coordinator, whose job is to plan and execute prescribed burns. “We have to be respectful of fire, but we can speed Mother Nature up tremendously by using fire the right way. Natives respond well to fire; it invigorates them and improves the land. Spontaneous growth is stimulated from new burns.”

In March, LCRA held a prescribed burn of acreage at LCRA’s McKinney Roughs Nature Park between Austin and Bastrop through a partnership with the Texas Cooperative Extension, Texas Forest Service and Bluebonnet Volunteer Fire Department. Joining them was a group of local landowners who wanted to see what a prescribed burn was all about so that they might consider such a technique on their own property. The goal is to return some of the property to a grassland prairie.

Learn more about controlled burns on LCRA.org.